We were ready before 8.30 AM even arrived. Cecilia woke up the earliest. She took her role as the tavern owner very quickly. By the ti the first players rolled into the tavern for so breakfast, they were greeted by the inviting sll of freshly-baked goods and the strong aroma that ca from a huge pot of steaming coffee.
Those who ca early had ti to enjoy breakfast while chatting with each other animatedly. Those who ca late did not have ti for that, but Cecilia thankfully had arranged for coffee and baguettes to be packed neatly for everyone to enjoy during the trip to Dinsional Sphere.
Most people ca early, but those who were supposed to run the raid that day could barely get anything down their throats. Everyone was nervous and scared. The good mood from yesterday's dinner seed to be swept away at night, replaced with reality. A lot of them sat in their seats quietly without speaking to anyone. Each of them was busy with their own thoughts.
"Eat sothing," Cecilia tried to persuade Aurendiria who looked like she barely slept a wink the previous night. She pushed a plate of cheese and ham baguette in Aurendiria's direction.
"No, thank you," the girl pushed the plate back. "I can take a second cup of coffee, though."
Cecilia pursed her lips. "Second cup, fifteen minutes after the first cup? Auren, you are acting like a middle-aged salaryman in the middle of the week."
Auren cracked a smile for the first ti that day. "You are speaking as if you knew how a middle-aged salaryman in the middle of the week behaved."
"I sure know," Cecilia said with a grin as she put a cup of steaming green tea in front of Aurendiria. "My Dad was one. Here, have so tea instead."
"Why tea?" Aurendiria grabbed the cup of tea anyway.
"It has the sa load of caffeine but healthier," Cecilia quipped.
Hi winked and HellWitch over as soon as she saw us.
"Look here."
She showed us her user interface screen and taught us how to track people.
"This is how you track players."
"Okay."
"Got it."
"Track as often as you can," Hi told us. "Just in case."
Just in case. Right.
At 8.30 AM sharp, Ingenious ushered us all out of the town. We took the ghost ship to Frozen Tundra Land, from where the raid runners would walk in the direction of the Dinsional Sphere.
HellWitch and I stayed at the safe map of Frozen Tundra Land, waiting to track the runners as soon as the raid started.
As soon as the raid participants left, HellWitch and I were left alone.
"Let's pick a good spot?" HellWitch suggested.
"Sure. Where should we go?"
"Over there we have so cushioned seats..."
"Oh?"
I never knew that there were so cushioned seats in the Frozen Tundra Land's base. Not that I spent a lot of ti there after only advancing a day before.
HellWitch took to a comfortable spot that looked a lot like a living room. There were two side-by-side egg-shaped chairs made of rattan with soft cream-colored cushions lining their interiors.
We took our seats and started to prepare ourselves.
"Who are you going to track?" she asked .
"Aurendiria," I answered without skipping a beat. HellWitch did not respond, so I looked up at her and asked. "And you? Who are you going to track?"
"Ingenious and ArrowRain."
"Okay."
"..."
I finished making my preparation and went to track Aurendiria.
Tracking was fairly simple. I just needed to right-click on Aurendiria and there was the option to track her location. As soon as I clicked the button, a ssage appeared on my screen and showed her location information.
[Aurendiria is currently on the "Unknown Border" map.]
"She is in 'Unknown Border'," I inford HellWitch. "Quite fast. Three more maps and she will be in Dinsional Sphere."
"Mmm," ca HellWitch's answer.
I blinked at HellWitch. "What is wrong? Why are you so quiet?"
HellWitch swallowed hard. She had a slight frown between her eyebrows when she looked at .
"It's nothing."
I raised an eyebrow at HellWitch. "You aren't usually this quiet."
"I am not chatty by nature," HellWitch said.
"Yeah but you are also not a quiet person. I would have expected it from Laz but not you."
HellWitch pursed her lips. "Antares, I really don't want to talk about it. It is not my business whatsoever so..."
I leaned back in my seat and stared at HellWitch. I was not usually that curious either, but I felt that there was sothing that HellWitch wanted to tell and I wanted to hear it.
"Ok, out with it. Stop playing riddles."
"I am not," she mumbled. "It's just..."
"Just what?"
HellWitch curled his fingers into fists. "Antares, you do know that Aurendiria and BlackPuma are dating, right?"
"Um, yes. I do."
The crease on HellWitch's forehead deepened upon hearing my casual answer. "Then, don't you think you are getting too close to her? Just because BlackPuma isn't here... I think it is..."
My jaw dropped open from surprise.
"... despicable," HellWitch ended her statent in a whisper.
"HellWitch, you are wrong. There is nothing between and Aurendiria," I hurriedly said. This misunderstanding must be cleared as soon as possible. I could not believe that HellWitch of all people would think that.
HellWitch did not seem convinced at all.
"Are you sure? You two are very close," she remarked. "Especially after BlackPuma went missing."
"We are just friends. I feel obliged to console her in difficult tis such as these. You know that BlackPuma's disappearance practically clipped off her wings."
HellWitch stared at . "Okay."
"You don't believe ," I claid. "Why don't you believe ?"
"It doesn't matter," HellWitch said. "It is none of my business anyway."
She said that it was not her business, but I could see that she was sulking.
We spent the remaining ti in silence. Then 10 AM ca and we finally had a reason to talk to each other again.
In order to make a point, I decide to track Hi instead of Aurendiria.
"Hi is in the Dinsional Portal," I told HellWitch. The latter looked up at in surprise.
"Ingenious and ArrowRain too."
Dinsional Portal was the 150 raid map.
"It looks like they entered just fine," I comnted.
"Yep..."
"How often are we supposed to track?"
"Just spam but track different person every ti. Just in case spamming locations on one single player could cause lags. Which I don't believe, by the way."
HellWitch's tone beca warr. I smiled at her. "Okay."
I continued tracking every single person in our guild who participated in the raid, and so did HellWitch.
I would say that the tracking rate was quite fast. Maybe around one track every ten to fifteen seconds, depending on our typing speed.
Ti ran very slowly when people were anxious.
And then, both of us tossed a cry at the sa ti.
[BabyMage's location is currently not trackable.]
HellWitch and I exchanged pale glances.
Before we even said anything to each other, we quickly went back to tracking other guildmates.
[Perennia's location is currently not trackable.]
[Hi's location is currently not trackable.]
[ArrowRain's location is currently not trackable.]
[Ingenious' location is currently not trackable.]
And finally...
My finger trembled when I hit the enter button for the next tracking command.
[Aurendiria's location is currently not trackable.]
We sat there, completely numb. Up until the mont when everyone vanished within an instant, the location never changed. It had always been Dinsional Portal!
Ding.
HellWitch and I looked up at the sa ti. The sound ca from my user interface screen. There was a ssage from SakuraChan.
"Antares, you are the tracker for Twelve, right? Can we et up at Frozen Tundra Land's gachapon machine? We need to talk."
I was still speechless from the shock. HellWitch was not doing better than at all. I rely showed her SakuraChan's ssage and we got to our shaky feet and started to move toward the gachapon machine.
SakuraChan stood there with an Ice Elental Mage by the ID of KanokoChan. I rembered her as the girl who ca with Suzuran and HinoKun at that ti. The one who fought against DragonTalon when Dominion ambushed us while we were grinding.
Both girls looked pale and were sitting on the ground in front of the gachapon machine.
"I can't believe it," KanokoChan murmured, tears streaming down her cheeks like rivulets. SakuraChan was very quiet. She rely hugged her knees to her chest and stared at the icy ground without any focus.
"Hey," I finally managed to get one word out of my throat when HellWitch and I arrived in front of the two girls.
As soon as she saw , SakuraChan broke into tears.
"They disappeared," she said. "They all disappeared. Just like BlackPuma did."
And then, her eyes fluttered shut and she fell unconscious like a withering leaf.
"SakuraChan!!!"
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